Chapter 356 — The Snows of Winter Melt

For Gao Yang, whether or not to accept those exiled by the Church of the Shining Stars had never really been a question worth pondering. For Cecil Territory—developing at breakneck speed, saturated from top to bottom with a new order—any group of people in this era, once tossed into the mix, had to be polished into a qualified part of this industrial machine in the shortest time possible. It did not matter whether you had once been a believer, a noble, a merchant, or a slave. Upon entering Cecil, the first thing you faced was the buffer camps; after that came prolonged indoctrination and reformation—laboring in the factories, attending classes in the barracks, and growing on this land into a glorious and qualified Cecil citizen...

This was an era in which every means of propaganda and education lagged far behind. The impact of the Cecil industrial system and educational system upon the natives of this age was immeasurably powerful, and the identities those natives had held before entering the territory... were, in truth, of no consequence to this land.

Or, to put it another way, every native of this era was in fact unqualified for a magical-industrial society. Since everyone required reformation and education before being put to use, the only differences among them came down to how quickly and how easily they could be reformed.

Of course, accepting those exiled heretical cultists might indeed bring some extra trouble—Gao Yang had considered this as well.

The Church of the Shining Stars might make some moves, might spread rumors in regions where its influence was strong. But no matter what, such troubles fell within Gao Yang's acceptable range. The southern borderlands were not the Shining Stars Church's domain, so the Church's slander and restrictions could stir up ripples at most in the Plains of the Holy Spirit; moreover, in the face of Gao Yang of Cecil's natural prestige, the Church's defamatory rumors would not dare be too conspicuous. And putting it even more bluntly—even if those fanatical believers of the Holy Light truly harbored hostility toward Cecil Territory, what of it?

Gao Yang's future plans were already destined to bring him into conflict with the entrenched forces of the Plains of the Holy Spirit...

Pastor Wright departed, leaving together with the territory's merchant caravan. This pastor gentleman would return to where his preaching had begun—or rather, where he had first been exiled—to see with his own eyes just what those Holy Light priests intended to do.

And more people were pouring into this brand-new land of Cecil Territory.

As the weather steadily warmed, the waters of the Whitewater River rose with the meltwater from the snow mountains. Ever larger merchant ships appeared on the river channels, while overland transport likewise gradually revived. Covered wagons shuttled ceaselessly along the newly built North-South Highway (linking Cecil's main city with the Kant region) and the East-West Highway (built along the Whitewater River, linking Cecil's main city with Tansang), hauling an endless stream of raw production materials into this place—and bringing with them an endless stream of people.

Through overt and covert means, Cecil Territory reaped enormous wealth from alchemical potions, mining equipment, and magic-net technology, and that wealth was consumed at an astonishing rate, transformed into raw materials and industrial population and poured back into this land. At the very beginning, the daily gold-coin income of the territory made Heddy—the "chief steward"—tremble with dread, and then seeing the gold coins the territory spent each day made her tremble so much she nearly choked. But after so long a tempering, she had finally learned to face these figures with composure, and had come to accept something Gao Dai had once said:

Development is change; circulating capital is true wealth. Gold coins piled up in a castle are nothing but heaps of gleaming metal.

Traditional nobles were accustomed to hoarding wealth. After seizing gold and silver by every cunning and forceful means, they would always pile it up in their castles, or exchange it for more expensive things and pile those up in their treasuries. Heddy had once believed this was the proper way for a family to accumulate wealth, but now she finally understood: sometimes spending gold coins is the faster way to grow wealth...

At the dockside plaza, atop the tall harbor watchtower, Gao Yang—who had come to inspect—was looking down at a group of raggedly dressed people moving slowly along the western side of the plaza, while Cecil soldiers clad in armor, battle packs on their backs and molten-cut swords at their waists, kept order at the side.

An hour earlier, an exceptionally huge wooden ship had docked, and over a hundred people had emerged from its hold. According to intelligence, these were refugees from the western regions. Ever since last autumn, after Tansang Town, acting as middleman, had begun selling mining equipment to those noble territories in the west that owned mines, great numbers of mine laborers and slave workers had lost the means to make a living. Advanced mining equipment could replace hundreds upon hundreds of manual laborers, and the common folk of this era had virtually no notion of "savings." So wherever the mining equipment was sold, the miners there went bankrupt en masse. And the lords and nobles of this era would not keep surplus population: by their standards of productivity, every person who did not work was a mouth eating free food. With no sound industrial system in their own territories, they had no way to convert this surplus population into productive force. So the only choice was to drive the extra people out.

These people were the "raw materials" for the further expansion of Cecil's magical industry—but before that, Gao Yang had to remind the person beside him.

He tilted his head slightly and instructed Heddy, who stood at his side: "Increase security at the buffer camps in the near term. Scatter all the new immigrants and settle them in different camp zones. Also, arrange for a group of old immigrants who have already worked in the factories for some time to serve as 'life mentors' in the camps, telling the new arrivals about the benefits of factory work and life in the territory. Finally, the territory must make preparations—arrange work, housing, and education for every immigrant in advance."

"Yes," Heddy nodded in response, but immediately asked, "Are you worried that so many people might cause trouble?"

"The number of people is not the important reason. The important reason is that they have just lost their jobs," Gao Yang said with a stern expression. "Unlike the displaced people we accepted before, most of those who have come to the territory recently lost their work because of 'machines.'"

"...So they come bearing hostility?" Heddy was clever and reacted swiftly. "Will they be hostile toward Cecil Territory?"

"No. Given the knowledge and courage of most common folk in this era, they would never—and would not dare—be hostile toward a lord and a lord's land. But they will be hostile toward those machines that caused them to lose their work. That hostility is blind, but it is the only outlet they can think of," Gao Yang explained. "These people do not understand Cecil Territory. They come to this land seeking a way to live, but they surely never imagined they would be dealing with machines. We must guide them in advance."

"Yes, I understand," Heddy lowered her head slightly. "But is that guidance enough?"

"It is enough. These people are not a mob. They came to this land, in the end, only to survive. So long as their survival is assured, their hatred of the machines will easily dissipate," Gao Yang said calmly. "But elsewhere... in places that know only to import mining equipment without considering the aftermath, the situation will be quite different."